Hi. I just figured out how to change the annoying "lawyer" screen when the unit powers up. Note that this involved hand-editing the .hex firmware update file. This is not recomended for newbies. Here are the details

*** this text should be copied to a text editor and viewed in a fixed-width font in order to make sense ***

*** My own "Lawyer" screen ***The contents of this document are provided completely without warranty or guarantee of any kind. The author takes no responsibility for the use this document. This procedure worked for me. If you screw up your GPS, then don't blame me. Following this procedure may cause your GPS receiver to cease functioning, blow up in your face, or may cause the Earth to crash into the Sun. Use at your own risk.

*** What you will need ***1) The Magellan Meridian firmware (available from www.magellangps.com)2) An hexadecimal ASCII chart3) A calculator that can add hexadecimal numbers4) Paitence5) Familiarity with hexadecial numbers

*** Purpose ***The Magellan Meridian has an annoying "lawyer" screen. This screen states "All data is provided for reference only. You assume full responsibility and risk when using this device." Wouldn't it be nice to replace this with "This unit belongs to (name), (e-mail), (phone). Reward for safe return."??? This document will allow you to perform the changes.

*** Background ***This "lawyer" screen is stored in the Meridian's memory as plain old ASCII text. All that is required to make the change is to modify the firmware (version 3.08 at the time of this writing). This can be done by modifying the .hex file supplied by Magellan to update the firmware of the unit. This will be done by hand using a text editor.

*** What is a .HEX file? ***The file is nothing more than a plain Motorola S-record file. The first line of the file will be an "S0" record, and the last line will be an "S7" record. It is the stuff in the middle, the "S3" records that we are interested in.

Each line is a separate "record." Note that ALL values in these records are in hexadecimal. One sample record is shown below.

S3192D11C5CC5468697320756E69742062656C6F6E677320746F92

Lets tear this record apart....

S3 19 2D11C5CC 5468697320756E69742062656C6F6E677320746F 92

The first "S3" indicates that this is an "S3" record. This indicats that this record holds data bound for a 32-bit address space. Do not worry about what this means. All records that we are interested in will be "S3."

The "19" is the number of bytes in this record. Do not touch this.

The "2D11C5CC" is the address where the data is to be placed. This tells exactly where in the meridian the data will be put.

The "5468697320756E69742062656C6F6E677320746F" is the actual data that will be programmed to the meridian. This is the stuff that we will be changing. If you check the data in this sample, it translates in ASCII to "All data is provided". Does this look familiar.

The final "92" is a checksum. This number just tells the meridian that it received all of the data correctly. We will have to modify this.

*** What am I looking for? ***The data that we want to change is a simple ASCII text string, followed by three null bytes (00). For fimware version 3.08, this data is at Address 2D11C5CC, which is line 57252 of the "mrdn3_08.hex" file. This address and line number will likely change for future versions of the firmware.

If this is NOT the version of the firmware that you are using, then you will need to search the .hex file for the specified pattern. The current legal mumbo-jumbo begins with "All data". In hex, this translates to "416C6C2064617461". If you do a search on this string in the .hex file, you should go straight to the correct part. Notice that there is no guarantee that the the string "All data" will be on one record. Part could be on one record, and part on the next record. If this is the case, then pick the next two words ("is provided" or "69732070726F7669646564") and search for their ASCII values. These values will change if the evil lawyers require a change to the notice.

Once you have found the right lines, copy them to a separate file, and convert the hex back to ASCII, as shown below.

Note that after the string is "000000." I assume that this tells the unit when the string ends. I use a "_" character to indicate a space or a null value. After this begins the "Donn" string. This is actually the beginning of the legal screen in another language (I did not finish translating the rest of the line). You can either leave this alone, or change it too. Note that the meridian supports several languages.

Now that we have found our target, we start changing the data itself. First, compose the message and verify that it is the same length or shorter than the original (very important). Next, write the message below the S records and delete the data as shown below (my phone number has been obscured for privacy reasons). Keep the same number of characters per line as the original.

Note that in the above example, the checksum has been replaced with "??". Calculating this is our next step. Pull out your hexadecimal calculator. If you do not have one, the calculator program that came with Windows will work, if you put it in "scientific" mode. Starting right AFTER the "S3", you want to add EACH byte separately. For example, "S3192D11C5CC5468697320756E69742062656C6F6E677320746F??" would be 19+2D+11+C5+CC+54+68+69+73+20+75+6E+69+74+20+62+65+6C+6F+6E+67+73+20+74+6F = 96D. To get the checksum, take "FF" and subtract the last two digits of the total. In our case, FF-6D=92. Then, put 92 as the checksum. Our example is now complete.

Please be *VERY* careful when you calculate the checksum. I do not know what would happen if the checksum was wrong, and I do NOT want to find out. Your last step is to copy these lines back over the original lines in the .hex file. Then download and enjoy.

Hi. I just figured out how to change the annoying "lawyer" screen when the unit powers up. Note that this involved hand-editing the .hex firmware update file. This is not recomended for newbies. Here are the details

Nice write up!

I'll see what I can do to make it easier.

--------------A 1/1 via the trail around the hill? Nah... that's too easy! Let's go up and over! Why follow a trail when we can blaze our own?

The ONLY places that I have placed this info is here, and on the Yahoo meridian group.

As far as the ease of this hack, I could write a PERL script (if I had the time) to automate this, but Windoze does not even know what PERL is, even though it is free and a part of every Linux/Unix distro. I do not know much about Winblows programming. If I had to, I could even write something is C, but it would be a command-line tool, and AFAIK, the Window$ XP does not even have a command line.

Harrkev,I just posed it on the group as I am a member there already. Please by all means feel free to add any comments you so wish as well. thanks for all your help with this idea. It nice to see people trying to help out others with these cool ideas.And George...thank you too!

Good job. I have not tried to download the code yet, but the GUI is pretty slick.....

I am very impressed

One nit to pick....

You might want to add a help file or help text explaining that the code just modifies the .hex file, where to get the original .hex file, and explain that you still need to download the code to the unit (and a note that they will have to use "expert" mode).

I can imagine a newbie plugging in their meridian, running the code and wondering why the message does not change.

On the other hand, if they can't figure this out, maybe they should not even try.

You might want to add a help file or help text explaining that the code just modifies the .hex file, where to get the original .hex file, and explain that you still need to download the code to the unit (and a note that they will have to use "expert" mode).

I can imagine a newbie plugging in their meridian, running the code and wondering why the message does not change.

On the other hand, if they can't figure this out, maybe they should not even try.

Good job. I have not tried to download the code yet, but the GUI is pretty slick.....

I am very impressed

Thanks.

Quote

You might want to add a help file or help text explaining that the code just modifies the .hex file, where to get the original .hex file, and explain that you still need to download the code to the unit (and a note that they will have to use "expert" mode).

I can imagine a newbie plugging in their meridian, running the code and wondering why the message does not change.

It was a choice of a few hours sleep or writing the documentation... I chose sleep.

--------------A 1/1 via the trail around the hill? Nah... that's too easy! Let's go up and over! Why follow a trail when we can blaze our own?

Very interesting . I wouldn't mind updating my gps with this cool idea. Too bad it isn't a magelan. I suppose you pro's could probably update my lowrance with these line/conversions. This makes me feel like i'm in the twilight zone duh (newbie)

Cool !Got brave and decided to be the Windows XP Test Bunny and I am happey to say worked like a champ.

1) Connect Meridian unit to data cable (DO NOT POWER ON YET)2) Unzip MYMeridian.exe to same folder as meridian3_08.hex3) Double-Click MyMeridian.exe4) After Agreeing to disclaimer, enter desired text in box and click OK5) Power on unit and go to SAT Screen6) Open Magellan Firmware Loader by double-clicking magup.exe7) Click File8) Click "Code File"9) Point it to the "Personal.hex" file that was created in Step 4 above.10) Procede with upload.

*Note - The Firmware Uploader automatically uploaded the actual meridian3_08.hex when I first launced it. I simply waited for it to complete and then followed the steps as outlined above.

I now have

This GPS Property Of PC MedicGeocaching With NavicacheWWW.NAVICACHE.COM

I have just tried this out with my Platinum.. worked great!! Took a few trys to get the layout the way I wanted it but all went well.

I didn't bother uploading the mrdn3_08.hex file first and then following up with personal.hex.. I just renamed mrdn3_08.hex to mrdn3_08.backup and renamed personal.hex to mrdn3_08.hex. This let me automatically upload the modified file the first time.. worked with no problems at all.

1. A Help button! 2. Step by step documentation merged with harrkev's original technical document.3. Prompt for automatic launch of Magellan's magup.exe... will also bring up the documentation in notepad for easy reference.

Very interesting . I wouldn't mind updating my gps with this cool idea. Too bad it isn't a magelan. I suppose you pro's could probably update my lowrance with these line/conversions. This makes me feel like i'm in the twilight zone duh (newbie)

What make and model is it?

--------------A 1/1 via the trail around the hill? Nah... that's too easy! Let's go up and over! Why follow a trail when we can blaze our own?

Your help file included with the download is very accurate. I have deleted my earlier post for instructions so that people do no get confused by seeing several sets of them.Way to go!i have tested this on XP, ME and with the Magellan 330, Merid gold and have found out the Platinum works with it too.

I tried the program last night. Your program is a *LOT* more convenient than my method

The only problem that I had was that I could not get magup to use the personal.hex file. I had to rename personal.hex to mrdn3_08.hex for it to work. Oh well. Well done. You have done the world a favor.

I get this messege : personal.hex does not appear to contain code for . Continue? . I hit yes and it does not do anything, i belive I am doing this right (have done similar things in the past). Any hints of whatI can do?